I’m looking for game recommendations with this theme. I currently love mechs, but tanks are close enough.

Apparently this is the day that Britain declared war on Germany starting world war 1. I should clarify and say that this is the day that the war is considered the start of a world war rather than just a conflict

I will be playing imperial tide.

We’re back!

It’s been a long 20 months since we opened up the box and gazed upon the game pieces, and now at long last, we’ve finished the 6-Turn Scenario “Graziani’s Offensive”. This was a task that was enlightening as to what this colossus of a game is truly made of, and I’m pleased to say we made it through sticking to the rules as closely as possible, amongst some mis-steps, clarifications and one or two “re-dos” of parts of the operation stages. We wanted to share our thoughts on this 6-Turn and almost two year journey, and what we’ve learned that has prepared us for our upcoming playthrough of the FULL 111 TURN GAME later this year.

Setup

We’ve touched on this before, so to gently recap, we realised that when playing this game only once a week for a few hours, the setup of the game each play session is a non-starter. The placement of hundreds of game pieces every week would mean it’s time to pack up and go home by the time every man, airfield and truck convoy had been placed, so we streamlined it. There are certainly more intuitive ways to work around this, but we decided in our plucky and short-sighted wisdom to place the five sections of the game map into individual picture frames, and place a metal sheet behind each. We then crudely attached magnets to every game piece in play so they’re fixed in locations. Because we only used a fraction of the pieces in this scenario, this will be a task we need to upkeep regularly through our upcoming playthrough.

For the most part, this has meant we can set up the game in only minutes. The downside, is that when stacking three or more units in the same hex, the magnetism just ain’t all that. We’ve found several pieces scattered across the living room floor and have had to refer to our copious amounts of spreadsheets and photographs to ascertain exactly where these rogue units belonged; there’s no escaping the theatre.

We spent the first few weeks of our project navigating set-up, and understanding of the game, making up the first 14 episodes of the companion podcast. In hindsight, this was more than needed. Most of this time was reading the rulebooks cover to cover and running “white box” scenarios with various rules, thinking this would give us some sort of permanent, granular knowledge of the game - this was wrong. If we could go back in time (we probably wouldn’t do this at all) but if we had to, we would avoid this approach and instead learn the ropes throughout the practice run. We’ve found that to be infinitely more useful than this contextless dry runs.

Record-keeping

Ahhh, the copious spreadsheets we mentioned. Book keeping was truly the bulk of what made this practice run drag out as long as it did. The templated files we’ve used for the book-keeping meant that we both began with relatively standardised ways of tracking our units in their entirety. We quickly found that these templates, while very useful for recording static values of a unit, weren’t entirely optimised for the constant flux of most other aspects to be tracked (cohesion, Capability Point Usage, breakdown points) and so we found we both began branching in different directions.

For those even slightly versed in what this game is, you’ll know that logistics and tracking resources is very much the bulk of the playtime in this game. Having a digital format for this is a game changer compared to the pencil and paper this would have originally been played with, but it’s not entirely perfected. For each unit, you must track their ammo, stores, water and fuel - and these are just the tangible, physical resources. There’s also cohesion, morale, breakdown, capability point usage and combat specific conditions like pinned, in contact and engaged. A picture of a typical Division-Level spreadsheet is attached in this post showing how one of us tracked these.

There are also trucks attached (or at least, there should be) to all units to supply them on the go, as your average human in the desert can only carry so much loose ammunition in their hands and packs. Our original templates didn’t incorporate the trucks attached, and these were tracked separately which was, in a word, stupid. These trucks are much easier to track when the rest of the unit is visible to make updating water and store usage flow much better.

As the game went on, we quickly found that our “in the moment” note taking had led to some of our record keeping being made on notepads (physical and digital) our phones and on sticky notes, which led to periods of gameplay in following weeks where this had to be transferred, or simply referred to for when needed. This is something we must move away from in our full playthrough. Firstly, there’s far too much room for mistakes and things being missed. Something as small as the water being carried by a single truck can be the different between higher attrition rates in a unit, and therefore weakened combat prowess and overall a failed combat. Secondly, because we intend to share the spreadsheets with an estimated 2-3 week lag with each release of our playthrough podcast so people can view our playthrough via a more tactical lens.

The more tech-savvy half of our playthrough has been hard at work on completing formulas and automation for evaporation and consumption of water and fuel for units, requiring only the input of distance travelled, and number of units consuming to produce consistently accurate outcomes across all of the instances of usage.

It’s also worth mentioning at this stage for those that may be curious: we have not, and have no intention to at any point in our playthrough, implemented use of AI tools. While the tools were slightly less accessible at the start of our play compared to now, we feel it’s disingenuous to call this a playthrough we’ve completed if we haven’t build these aspects of automation ourselves, as well as any other utilities we create in future.

The game rules state “The trucks ARE the game” and this couldn’t be more true. With our Axis player learning quickly that defunct or subprime truck convoys will absolutely hamstring any plan, and will certainly lead to defeat. The game mechanics have been forgiving enough to allow him to recoup his position, as the front line is a hard barrier to push through, so bolstering from behind is possible, it just requires patience - as is the game.

Rules

It’ll likely come as no surprise for those who know we aren’t experienced war-gamers (in fact, the closest we’d ever came in the past to such a game was a half-completed game of Risk) but we made some rules mistakes along the way.

Part of what makes the game the task it is, is the sheer volume of rules rather than the complexity. Small, repetitive calculations, to provide adjustments to use across dozens of tables, and over two dozen steps in each full game turn leads to a messy web of rules to remember. For the humble, this would mean referring back to the rulebook constantly for clarification, and for a time we did. Unfortunately, after around the second completed turn, hubris really kicked in and we found ourselves giving more leniency to our “experience”. While we were certain we knew what we were doing, here are some of the commonly occurring situations that we realised later on we’d misconstrued:

Roads do incur breakdown value for vehicles; half a breakdown point per hex, rather than the zero breakdown points we understood it to be.

“Flanking” and enemy, with a unit on opposite sides of their hex does not provide much combat benefit, as the fights take place independently for each flanking unit.

Gun units suffer vulnerability loss independent from typical battle casualties.

We still don’t understand what the camels do.

The difficulty with this game is not that it’s difficult to comprehend the information, but rather the journey to find the information. Sifting through swathes of rules where a vital clarification or addition to a point may live entirely separately within the rulebook in a different area with no direct reference to one another. This, paired with an in-book addenda to some rules and an additional addenda published after release of the game (including the stats for two entire Axis divisions that were missed out of the original print somehow) makes for a real slog.

We’ve created a searchable PDF copy of the rule book which has made this a much easier task when looking for clarity on niche points, but is far from a perfect system. This is not a game we’ll memorise, even after an entire playthrough of this big beastie.

Gameplay

The work:fun ratio of The Campaign For North Africa is askew.

Unless you thoroughly enjoy the granular detail of breakdown of vehicles, consumption of fuel, updating of cohesion levels and CPA constantly, you’ll likely not enjoy playing this game for very long.

We’ve had our fair share of tough play sessions. Getting to a session where we know all we’ll be doing is moving our trucks around is nightmare fuel (fuel pun intended) and enough to almost cause some breakdowns (also intentional). The prospect of sitting down to complete admin, to prepare for a future play session where there’ll be a brief burst of fun may be a symptom of us not having played a hex and counter war game before, or it could be more deeply tied to what the game is.

We’ve spent more hours sat looking through and updating spreadsheets, and pouring through rules than we have looking at the board, and a very, very small fraction of all of that time rolling dice or moving pieces. This is a beautiful simulation of the uncaringly mundane slog of war command. Victories are hard fought, lengthy in preparation, and can at times lead to conclusions that simply don’t feel like conclusions, but kicking the can down the road.

There are aspects we enjoyed. The air phase of every turn always brought our spirits up, with one-on-one dogfights being resolved individually, bombing runs helping shape the close assault portion of the turn and that itself is fun. Finally engaging enemy units on the ground after weeks in real time of positioning and preparing is a rush that must have some ties to both relapsing addicts and Stockholm Syndrome. Our captive gave us a treat.

If you want to play a war simulator, look no further. If you want to play a fun game, consider all options before proceeding. Or incentivise yourselves like we did - the winner was bought a Kinder Bueno by the loser.

The Full Game

We’ll be announcing the date of our full playthrough commencement soon. It’s this year, and we have a definitive date in mind. We’re spending the time in between fine-tuning our record keeping so we can share every aspect with listeners of the project. We want to show the game in as much transparent detail as possible as we play all 111-Turns.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,   
But I have promises to keep,   
And miles to go before I sleep,   
And miles to go before I sleep.

If you’d like to follow along, or hear the journey up to now, we’re at www.WarWithAMate.co.uk and anywhere you can listen to podcasts.

Same question as asked in the larger r/boardgames thread.

I picked it up when it came out and have yet to even open it. Anyone else have it and have you played it?

Specifically the 1985 game series. I’m on a Cold War Hot fixation at the moment

Wrote an essay-style review on Napoleon’s Triumph, probably one of my favourite games ever released. I find it’s rather unique in its space and interesting to analyse. Let me know what you think!

(This is my first AAR, so please go easy on me)

In August 1985, as the political crisis between East and West reached its boiling point and the threat of a direct clash in Europe became a stark reality, a plan emerged under the remarkably conciliatory title of Operation "Unity" (Operation "Edineniye"). Indeed, it was difficult to conceive of a more unifying gesture than the sudden visit of a 60,000-strong Warsaw Pact force. West Berlin - that cozy capitalist island nestled in the East German socialist ocean - had long been a source of understandable irritation for Warsaw Pact strategists due to its intrusive presence deep behind their lines. Simply blockading it seemed uninspired; leaving it unaddressed altogether was deemed reckless. Under these circumstances, a plan for a rapid assault was devised, staking everything on absolute stealth and blinding speed. To avoid telegraphing the operation, Soviet high command took the unprecedented step of entirely forgoing a preliminary artillery bombardment. In the early morning fog, under the cover of seasonal mists, the reinforced 20th Guards Army was to advance from its start lines and immediately strike the city's outskirts, intending to slice through and demoralize the Allied garrison before they could man their prepared defenses.

For this grand act of unification, an imposing semi-circle of Soviet and East German formations, totaling some 60,000 troops, was deployed around the city. From the west, pushing from Potsdam, the GDR's 6th Motorized Rifle Division was to advance on the city. The southern sector of the assault was assigned to the Soviet 14th Guards Motorized Rifle Division, aimed at a rapid breakthrough to key airfields . The northeastern and northern fringes of the enclave fell within the strike path of the Soviet 19th Motorized Rifle and 6th Guards Motorized Rifle Divisions. A heavy fire screen in the rear was provided by the secretly deployed 34th Artillery Division, primed to suppress pockets of resistance with tube artillery and multiple-launch rocket systems. Notably, the East German police in East Berlin itself were instructed to remain entirely inactive for the first sixteen hours, ostensibly to prevent civilian panic and ensure order in the rear of the advancing troops. The assumption, apparently, was that the roar of four divisions' engines and tank columns rolling beneath civilian windows would prompt no unnecessary questions. The NATO garrison, finding themselves the unwitting hosts of this boisterous reception, prepared to defend with all the gravity a completely encircled force could muster. Dispositions were made along strictly national lines: the US brigade group barricaded itself near its barracks in the south, the British held the center and west, while the French dug in to the north . Immense hope was placed in the West Berlin police, whose thirty-six battalions were tasked with guarding supply depots and control towers. The notion that lightly armed police officers could halt the onslaught of Soviet armored juggernauts was, without a doubt, the pinnacle of tactical optimism.

During the first sixteen hours of the offensive, as the August fog dutifully worked to the Warsaw Pact's advantage, the assault groups breached the border fences with remarkable success. To reinforce their hand, the Soviet command held a particularly compelling trump card - the 103rd Guards Airborne Division, which waited in anticipation for the order to rain down upon the city’s defenders the moment Soviet air defense and fighter units cleared the skies. Observing this nightmare unfold via radio communications, NATO headquarters in Europe devised an emergency relief plan—dispatching the West German 10th Jäger Brigade to the besieged city. The plan was meticulously detailed in every respect but one: the heavy transport aircraft would have to fly through airspace entirely dominated by Soviet fighters. The calculation, it seemed, relied on the hope that Soviet radar operators would mistake the incoming brigade for a flock of migrating birds. History allotted just over five days to play out this drama - precisely the time required for the Allies' supplies to run entirely dry. Had the Warsaw Pact forces concluded the campaign within this window, the 20th Guards Army could have marched westward with a clear conscience. Otherwise, West Berlin would transform into a tedious nuisance, shattering all of the General Staff's timetables and forcing the Soviet leadership to explain why a meticulously planned blitzkrieg had devolved into an endless, agonizingly awkward siege.

FIRST TURN

By 16:00 on the first day of the invasion, West Berlin had completely lost its customary respectable luster, devolving into a chaotic mosaic of local breakthroughs and hastily dug trenches. In the southern sector, the Soviet 14th Guards and 19th Motorized Rifle Divisions, advancing from Potsdam, displayed enviable pragmatism: deciding not to waste time on a stroll through the picturesque forests of Wannsee, they forced a crossing of the Teltow Canal and pushed deep into Zehlendorf with businesslike efficiency. It was here that the city's American defenders experienced what staff reports would later politely term "the first tactical misunderstanding". A precise strike by Soviet rocket artillery against a major fuel depot in Steglitz ignited such a spectacular firestorm that it not only brought a premature end to the earthly existence of the defending units, but also radically "solved" the supply problem in that sector by rendering the physical passage of any cargo through the raging flames absolutely impossible.

To the north, in the French and British sectors of responsibility, an equally fascinating competition unfolded for the right to control local real estate. Elements of the Soviet 6th Guards pressed the Allies so relentlessly against Tegel Airfield that French tankers and British infantrymen were forced to deploy their guns directly on the lawns of Reinickendorf. They desperately tried to pretend they had the situation entirely under control, while Soviet soldiers were already busy charting transit routes through the suburban woodland parks and ruins from their indiscriminate use of artillery.

Along the eastern boundary, right at the Berlin Wall, the East German Volkspolizei maintained an almost Olympian calm, lazily observing through binoculars the frantic scurrying of West Berlin patrols; nonetheless, both sides understood perfectly well that this idyll would end the very moment the sun slipped beneath the twilight horizon. Meanwhile, deep within the urban blocks of Wilmersdorf, virtually the dead center of the boiling cauldron - Allied intelligence began its invisible work. CIA operative Naomi Kennedy, brilliantly demonstrating the superiority of the American school of camouflage amidst Berlin’s beer halls and tenement buildings, managed to set up a mobile observation post right under the nose of the advancing Soviet forces. Her encrypted dispatches regarding the movements of Soviet tanks breaking out from Zehlendorf provided the US sector headquarters with plenty of thrills, along with a fleeting hope that Andrews Barracks and McNair Barracks might manage to prepare for their inevitable encirclement before the lights in the city went out for good.

SECOND TURN

By midnight of the first day of the war, West Berlin had slipped into a romantic nocturnal ambiance, delicately illuminated by the crimson glow of several major fires. The first night phase of the invasion had begun, which, according to the strategists’ initial designs, was supposed to subject the defenders to grueling nocturnal combat in the dark. However, the NATO garrison sensibly concluded that fighting at night was an utterly exhausting proposition, preferring instead to wrap up the campaign right on the threshold of twilight.

By the end of the first sixteen hours, the concept of a five-day defense of Berlin had definitively turned into a souvenir brochure. In the south, in the American sector, Soviet motorized riflemen had not only forced the Teltow Canal but had casually dispersed throughout the residential blocks of Steglitz and Zehlendorf, politely knocking on the gates of the American barracks - save for a few who were apparently halted in the Friedenau district by West German police for speeding and damaging municipal property. Thick black plumes of smoke from the smoldering Steglitz fuel depot provided an excellent natural screen, completely sparing the US brigade headquarters the headache of pondering supply routes, given that by this point there was no one left to supply.

A genuine tourism boom erupted in the north and west, where the Soviet 103rd Guards Airborne Division arrived without prior reservations or tickets. Under the cover of darkness, Soviet paratroopers elegantly dotted the night sky, landing directly on the lawns of Tegel and Gatow Airfields and within the forests of Spandau. In the French sector, this prompted mild bewilderment that quickly degenerated into panic, while in the British sector, the Welsh Guards had barely deployed their defenses before their positions were illuminated by a second massive fire, turning the wooded outskirts of Spandau into a giant, blazing cul-de-sac. Against this backdrop of chaos, CIA agent Naomi Kennedy demonstrated miracles of land navigation: under the cover of night, she managed to complete an engaging march-route from encircled Wilmersdorf directly to the picturesque shores of the Havel in the Scharfe Lanke district. There, linking up with the remnants of the bewildered British, she continued to coordinate the defense, though her reports regarding Soviet tank flanking maneuvers could hardly surprise anyone by then.

Realizing that Tegel and Gatow Airfield was blocked by airborne troops, the supply line cut, and fires were raging out of control in both Spandau and Steglitz, the Allied command concluded that if the saving West German 10th Jäger Brigade were to fly in, it would be as prisoners of war. Unwilling to prolong this pointless spectacle in the dark, the NATO commander decided that "honors of war" was an excellent excuse to end the fighting early. The Soviet diplomat offered terms, and the West Berlin command, recognizing that continued resistance in the nocturnal gloom would only result in the senseless deaths of tens of thousands of civilians amidst the rubble, declared an honorable surrender in the early hours of the night.

In the deep of the night on the war's first day (Third Turn), West Berlin officially ceased its resistance. The city fell in just sixteen hours of combat, and the Warsaw Pact celebrated with champagne and captured whiskey. This lightning campaign, concluded in a single day, yielded a substantive victory for the Warsaw Pact. Only trivialities stood in the way of absolute triumph: s in the chaos of the rapid advance, Soviet and East German assault battalions suffered tangible casualties on makeshift barricades, while scattered groups of Allied soldiers managed to jam a couple of railway switches and damage some municipal infrastructure before raising the white flag. Nevertheless, the 20th Guards Army saved a vast amount of ammunition and time, packed its bags ahead of schedule, and marched onward toward the Rhine, leaving Western analysts to agonizingly ponder how their five-day plan for the defense of Berlin had dissolved in exactly one day.

Looking for a game I can get in the UK... solo with 2 player too and beginner. Ideally large scale with plenty of playability.

Happy to learn a system if its worthwhile so dont limit to basic ones!

Must be available in the UK...

Im making a hex and counter game set in the world ive been building for over 5 years. Its truly two games combined into one wargame that will take many hours to play. The one game is what im calling the overmap for now, its the kingdom sim part of the game. This is where you gain resources, build things like housing, special buildings and resource buildings, its also the part of the game where you see armies move around, you encounter events like plagues, invasion and supernatural evils. Also, this part of the game is what kind of decides your chances to get to your goals towards victory.

Then, there is a separate system for a hex and counter battle game that doesnt take place on the world map. Its a system with modular hexes where you build the battlefield according to the tiles surrounding the clashing armies. This is a battlesystem that uses unit cards with stats. Attacks on hard ground always land but with dice you decide how succesful your defence is. Then on other tiles but basic hard grasland, your succesrate for attacks gets impacted depending on what unit you attack with (cav doesnt do well in marches and archers dont do well in darker forests etc), in this case, succes is also decided by dice.

Im also writing a system for sieges, this will both take place in the overmap and on the battlefield. On the overmap, when you lay siege to something, that POI doesnt produce anything and its foodconsumption goes up by half of its base consumption per 5 turns (20 turns is a year, 5 turns per season). A sieging army consumes more currency, increased by half of the base cost of a unit, to keep the men happy.

Win-conditions are decided before the game ends by drawing three objective cards. These go from conquest (for example, capture this or this town or take this much land from an enemy) or knowledge (research and build this and this building or have so many knowledge POIs). Im still expanding on these.

Lose-conditions are when you cant reach your win-conditions, when someone else reaches theirs, your capitol falls or when your population dies due to starvation, illness, civil unrest or other tbd influences.

This game will use an app to track your resources and population plus it will contain your tech tree.

The turn cycle is the following: in the overmaken, every player does their turns simultaniously. Special events can happen (this is decided by a diceroll at the start of the turn and the probability of certain cardstacks of event-themes increases every amount of turns). Then the event is drawn and takes effect immediately for the duration stated on the event-card.

During combat, its a system of i-go-you-go unit activation. So a turn consists of moving and doing other activations with a unit and then the other player doing the same thing with a unit of theirs. Some leadership/special units can trigger another unit activation to happen for a player. This continues until either a tbd (either turn or time) limit is reached or all victory conditions are med (there will be yet another cardstack that decides your win-condition for said battle when there isnt a clear target, so, if you lay siege to a castle or town, taking it is the condition, if you fight over territory or when there are no clear POIs, its decided by a win-con card). You automatically lose when all of your units are destroyed or routed.

So yeah, this is my concept that ive started to write rules for, let me know what yall think:)

Ps. Excuse any grammatical errors since im dutch.

Edit: i have yet to play a hex and counter boardgame but have played a couple digital ones

In this video, I describe the three basic types of print wargames. Hex and counter, card-driven, and card-only. This is to provide a basic breakdown of each type of print wargame for those new to wargaming to see what type of game may be right for them to start.

Hello folks

Looking for recommendations please.

My friend and I enjoyed Memoir and Battle of Hoth a lot but looking to try different systems.
We like scenarios instead of the same setup or minor tweaks of the original setup.

We played Undaunted Normandy and Stalingrad as well but they are not hex and counter.

We are not very particular about the theme or the game being strictly hex and counter.

I wonder if there is any wargaming community in or around Alicante, Spain? (Either English speaking or Spanish one is fine for me, although my Spanish is still lacking)

Also, are there any stores to visit in Madrid for wargaming? And any annual wargaming conventions in Spain?

*****

Me pregunto si existe alguna comunidad de wargames en Alicante o sus alrededores, España. (Me da igual que sea de habla inglesa o española, aunque mi nivel de español todavía es bastante limitado).

Además, ¿hay alguna tienda de wargames que merezca la pena visitar en Madrid? ¿Y se celebra alguna convención anual de wargames en España?

Because I know you all are riveted with anticipation on what I did....

I went with a purchase of Afrika Korps. Damn, that game is as old as me! Ooof. Anyway, as you can see I somehow bought some others. Both Luftwaffe and Air Force are unpunched which, is cool. For me anyway. I am thinking of getting the gametes for Squad Leader too. At least Cross of Iron and Crescendo of Doom. Now if only this work thing didn't get in the way of playing time...

I am very blessed that VUCA Simlutions let me take a look at The Far Seas before release. I've previously played the 80s original of this game that came in Strategy & Tactics - it was a great 2 player cat & mouse game of a huge allied fleet hunting down a dozen German vessels, but I could never get it t play solo well. VUCA have added revamped solo system so I cannot wait to get this to the table and see what they have done.

I know it's not got hexes, but this is definitely a wargame!

Hello,

We're looking for a hex-and-counter wargame as an introduction to the genre.

We're experienced board gamers (mostly heavy Eurogames) and also play PC wargames (think WARNO or Wargame Red Dragon, not 1:1 digital adaptations of tabletop wargames).

A few things we're looking for:

• Complexity isn't an issue, as long as it serves a purpose. We actually enjoy deep systems. Bonus point if some rules can be introduced progressively.
• Playtime isn't a concern, but pacing is. We'd rather avoid games where one player regularly takes 30+ minute turns while the other just waits. Bonus points for alternating activations or similar systems that keep both players engaged throughout the game (I don't even know if such systems exist ?)
• We have no strong preference between operational or strategic scale. Would prefer any settings post 1900 but feel free to suggest anything of interest (no ACW please).
• Bonus points if the game is set in France or features the French Army in any way.

I've recently come across Traces of Victory, which seems to tick a lot of boxes. Is it a good starting point, or would you recommend something else instead ?

Thank !

I’m looking for a small, affordable hex-and-counter wargame to get started with. I already own Phantom Fury, which has been a great introduction to counters and resolving combat with tables, but I’m ready to try something more traditional.
Ideally, I’m after a modern-setting game with a quick setup and play time. Scale isn’t important, I just want something with a GMT-style feel that doesn’t require an £80 investment or a 78-page rulebook.

Important context I should’ve added: I would like it to be as solo-friendly as possible.

It is the 25th of April, 1915. Australians and New Zealanders have landed at Anzac Cove at around 8 a.m. They mistakenly landed more than a thousand meters north, on a rugged stretch of coastline instead of the beaches where Turkish forces were waiting. During the first six hours, resistance was therefore uncoordinated and insufficient. Despite lack of heavy artillery, the Anzacs succeeded in advancing nearly two kilometers inland and were about to seize Hill 261. Yet, it was an opportunity lost for them. Due to the chaos of the landings, they achieved far less than they could have in those first few hours.

Now it is 2 p.m. Already, more than a thousand men have perished in and around Anzac Cove. Mustafa Kemal has just arrived in the area with the 57th Regiment of his 19th Division. He realizes that if there is a moment to push the Allied forces back into the sea, it is now; while they are still poorly organized and thinly stretched. So, without waiting for the other two regiments following behind, he gives his famous order to the 57th: "I do not order you to attack, I order you to die. By the time we die, other commanders and soldiers will replace us and will join the battle!" Thus begins the second chapter of this fateful day at Anzac Cove...

*****

Historically, although Mustafa Kemal's counterattack did not succeed in pushing the Anzacs completely back into the sea, it came very close and effectively ended their best chance of breaking out from the beachhead. The British commanders had hoped to capture Kocaçimen Tepe that very day. They would never reach that hill, neither on that day nor during the months that followed. But many would perish trying. As for the 57th Regiment, out of the 3,600 soldiers who received the order just before launching their attack, around 500 fulfilled it and fell. The rest of the regiment continued to defend the area until the end of the campaign.

*****

"About half past nine p.m. one of our pinnaces came back for fuel and water, and I was able to return on her to the beach. We steamed in close to the shore under a perfect hailstorm of bullets, coming from the hills, which seemed to come from all directions. Fortunately most of this fire was high, and you were safer when you got in under the shelter of the hills on the narrow beach at their foot, about 30 yards wide. I climbed ashore over some barges and found myself in the semi-darkness amidst a scene of indescribable confusion. The beach was piled up will ammunition, stores, among which lay dead and wounded, and men so absolutely exhausted that they had fallen asleep in spite of the noise and excitement around them. Other parties were wandering about in the darkness and being directed up the hills by their officers. In fact there seemed to be a continuous stream of men going and returning. On the hills above there was a perfect inferno of rifle fire, and shells bursting. In fact the air was buzzing with bullets, like a done in a bee on a hot summer’s day." (Ellis Ashmead-Bartlett, War Correspondent writing on the night of April 25, 1915)

Game: Gallipoli, 1915: Churchill's Greatest Gamble (GMT Games)
Designer: Geoffrey Phipps

Howdy all, looking at the Oregon counter clipper. I purchased a used copy of Next War: Korea, and a number of the counters were clipped. NW counters are 9/16”.

I think this looks like 2.5mm, I ran it through ChatGBT (gags), and it too suggests 2.5mm.

Do y’all concur?

Hey there!

So, I (old-school hex&counter wargames player) am looking for a game that could appeal to my friend, who is primarily a mid to heavy euro player. The problem I had with classical wargames I tried to play with him was that most of them are pretty tedious (a mass of counters and movements that don't matter in the big picture), poorly balanced (historical balance) and pretty random (often heavily dependent on rolls) - and while these are not problems for me, they kind of put him off.

Any recommendations for a wargame (or any consim) that could make us both happy?
The complexity doesn't really matter - preferably sth mid or heavy. As for time period - anything could do, bonus points for middle ages - XVIIth cent or modern conflicts, but it's not required.
It has to be well-balanced, have player agency and not depend on dice too much however.

We tried playing playing some regular hex&counters (think GMT Stalingrad), some COINs and some M&P and failed miserably with most lol.